Overtime
by slayer0109
Summary: Sachiko has been working a lot hours lately and Yumi is feeling a little neglected.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Hello! First off I'm still alive. I know it's been a few months since I've posted anything. As some know I started a new job in November and I work kind of odd hours, so I haven't been writing too much. I did start a one shot that I got actually really far on but then decided not to post because I didn't like direction I went with it. Anyways, that is just a small life update. This story here isn't going to be very long. In fact it was originally going to be a one shot, but then I decided that it may be better as a 2-3 chapter story, I haven't decided yet. Anyways, I don't have a ton to say, I still check my FF messages and my emails and respond to them when I can. If you have contacted me and it's been over 3 days without a response send it again, I sometimes make a mental note that I need to respond then forget.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this first chapter. I had fun writing this, but I haven't really touched this idea in my stories yet.

* * *

"There," Yumi said as she set the pan back down on the stove and admired her plating of the food for a moment. She wasn't a chef by any means, but she did enjoy cooking and trying new things. Making her dishes look good was something she would only do with Sachiko though. Mainly because she didn't care if they looked the best and because she knew her wife liked it from time to time.

Tonight was a little different however. Usually when Yumi cooked, Sachiko would be close by offering to help prepare things or cleaning the dishes as they needed. Though Yumi did most of the actual cooking, Sachiko liked to try and be a part of it. It was time every night where they got to enjoy each other's company.

Tonight, Sachiko hadn't stepped foot in the kitchen. Yumi glanced down to the plates for a moment before turning and leaving the kitchen to find Sachiko. She checked their bedroom and the attached bathroom, she checked the living room, and finally she checked their home office.

"Hey," Yumi said as she leaned against the doorframe. She raised an eyebrow a moment later when Sachiko didn't respond, her eyes just kept darting back and forth across the screen in front of her. Yumi raised an eyebrow at her wife as she entered the room and slowly made her way to the other side of the desk, Sachiko somehow seemed completely unware that she was in the room.

It wasn't until Yumi leaned close to her and said, "hey," again that Sachiko finally snapped out of her thoughts with a gasp as she looked towards Yumi.

"Yumi, don't do that, you scared me to death," Sachiko said as she relaxed a little.

"What are you working on?" Yumi asked curiously as she leaned against the desk and looked at her wife.

Sachiko shook her head, "nothing. Just some stuff I couldn't finish at work."

"Could it wait?" Yumi asked curiously. "Dinner is ready."

Sachiko glanced to her computer monitor and saw the time. "It really can't. I need to have this done for my father in the morning."

"Oh," was Yumi's response. "That is fine. I'll bring your plate in here for you."

"Leave the dishes for me. I'll finish them when I'm done with this." Sachiko said just as Yumi was about to leave the room. She felt bad that Yumi did all the cooking tonight.

 **Around a week later. . .**

"I don't know, I just. . ."

"Want her to pay attention to you?"

Yumi frowned at what her mother said. She didn't like the idea of being needy, but it was the truth. Sachiko had barely said a word to her the last few days, except for telling her that she would spend time with her when she was done for the night which never happened.

"You know I don't like that."

"Yumi, she is your wife, wanting her attention is perfectly normal."

". . .I guess," Yumi sighed as she leaned her head back on the sofa and looked towards the office. She could see the light on through the crack of the door. "I've tried to get her attention, but whatever she is working on is super important it seems."

"Perhaps this is just a busy time for her? I'm sure once she is done with what she is working on, you will be receiving all her attention again," Yumi's mother said trying to reassure her daughter. She knew how close Sachiko and Yumi were.

"I hope so. She is neglecting stuff around the house too. This isn't good for her to work this much," Yumi said thinking back to the other day when she woke up to a kitchen sink full of dirty dishes. She specifically remembered Sachiko saying she would get to them once she was done for the night. She couldn't blame her wife though because she also remembers Sachiko finally laying down sometime past midnight, which was far later than she usually stayed up.

"Have you mentioned that to her?" Yumi's mother asked curiously.

"I tried, but like I said, we've barely talked the past few days. Even this past weekend she wasn't around. I woke up to an empty bed, she texted me and said they were putting in hours over the weekend."

"This must be a big project."

"Yea," Yumi sighed as she glanced to the clock, it was nearing her bedtime and there was still no sign of her wife leaving the office."

"Did you get to spend any time together this weekend?"

"Not really," Yumi replied. "I mean, we got to spend a little time on Sunday, but she was just so out of it. She slept for so long Sunday morning and when she woke up you could just tell she was drained. I didn't want to be an annoyance to her so I just gave her some space. She still managed to work for five or so hours, but then she went to bed around dinner time."

"Yumi, you need to talk to her. You're right, this obviously isn't healthy. At least get her to give you a time when she will be done. Who knows maybe you can even help her finish her work quicker?"

"Maybe, but I would be afraid to screw anything up. I think a lot of what she is doing will be presented to her father or his business partners."

"I see... Well, it was just a suggestion. I think you at least need to talk to her and tell her what you're feeling."

Yumi took a deep breath and glanced back towards the office door for a moment. "I'll try. Thank you for letting me vent a little mom. I've got to get going to bed though."

"Alright, have a good night, Yumi."

"Bye," Yumi said before hanging up the phone and tossing on the couch cushion next to her. She wasn't ready to confront Sachiko, because she wasn't entirely sure what she wanted. Her worst fear was coming off as needy when she knew her was very busy. Just the fact that she was feeling like this was annoying her, which didn't help anything.

 **The few nights later. . .**

Yumi looked at herself in the mirror for a moment, the idea of walking through their house in this was a little strange. She had gone through and closed all the curtains in their house, normally she wouldn't be caught dead outside her bedroom wearing these lacy undergarments.

Tonight, she was determined to get Sachiko's attention. Their friend Sei always joked that Yumi just had to do anything slightly seductive and it would get Sachiko's full attention. Yumi frowned at herself for a moment, she didn't like that she was stooping to this level. She didn't like that she felt neglected here, but she shook the thought out of her head. It was worth a shot at this point.

She slowly left their bedroom looking toward any window she knew about to make sure the curtains were closed. Once she finally made it down the stairs and to the office door she breathed a little relief. Unfortunately, her heart was starting to beat a bit faster and she wasn't sure why. This whole ordeal had her feeling many weird things. She just wanted Sachiko's extra work to be over with so they could go back to normal.

 _Knock, knock, knock. . ._

Sachiko glanced up from her laptop for a moment before looking back to what she was doing. It only took a second more before Sachiko snapped out of her work and looked back at her wife. Yumi was shyly standing in the doorway with her hands behind her back and a blush on her face.

"Y-Yumi," Sachiko said in surprise never taking her eyes off her wife. "What are you-"

"Shh," Yumi said as she put a finger up to her lips and walked towards Sachiko. She was trying to be seductive as possible with her actions, but it felt weird. She had never really done anything like this with Sachiko. Normally all it took was a few choice words said in a certain way to get the other in the mood. Yumi knew she needed something better this time though.

"Just for tonight, please come to bed," Yumi said as she leaned over the desk and slowly closed the laptop in front of Sachiko.

There was a pause before Sachiko shook her head, "I can't right now, I'm almost done," she responded as she opened the laptop again.

Yumi just simply closed the lid again. She didn't want to be ignored that easily tonight. "You've said that the past three days. Just join me for tonight."

Sachiko thought for a moment, "I-I will, but I need to finish this first," she insisted as she opened the laptop again.

"No," Yumi simply replied as she pushed it close again. "I'm not letting you get away with that tonight. You tell me every night that we will spend time together when you are done, but you never are."

Yumi's words struck a chord in Sachiko, "well being distracted certainly isn't helping," she responded more coldly than she meant to.

Yumi blinked once or twice before the words sunk in, Sachiko just simply went back to typing. "Oh," Yumi said before standing up straight and feeling her own mix of anger and hurt at her wife's words. ". . .Well I'm sorry for wanting to spend time with you."

Sachiko stopped typing and sighed as she leaned back in her chair. "Do we have to do this right now, Yumi?"

Yumi paused for a moment at a loss of words to what Sachiko had just said to her. She may not have shown it in her body language, but the annoyed tone in Sachiko's question hurt.

"I have to present this tomorrow morning before you are even out of bed and I've still got at least another hour of work to do on it. I'll spend time with you this weekend," Sachiko said dismissively as she glanced back down to her laptop screen and started typing again.

Yumi stood shocked, the hurt feeling from before only worse now. If Sachiko looked up, she would definitely see the pain on her wife's face now, but she never did. Yumi simply just took a deep breath before turning and leaving the room, slamming the door quite forcefully behind her.

Sachiko jumped at the noise before sighing, she knew what she said was insensitive. She had thought it the moment it left her mouth. Unfortunately, now she knew that it hurt Yumi.

* * *

 **A/N:** For those that were curious what I meant in the A/N above. I meant I don't generally touch the idea of Sachiko and Yumi, "fighting" if you will. I think reality check is the first story where it really happened for me. I've found it's kind of tough to make it sound right. When I first wrote this chapter, I had Sachiko paying way more attention to Yumi when she enters the office, but it made her getting annoyed suddenly seem just strange, so I tried to tweak it a bit so it wasn't so sudden and unexpected.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this so far and I'll see you in the next one! :D


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Hello! So I wasn't actually expecting to get this chapter done as fast as I did. Then I wasn't sure I wanted to post it right away, but I don't like holding chapters back and I'm fairly happy with this one. I don't have much to say except thank you for all the comments, favs, likes, and everything else that I'm forgetting. I am enjoying this story and I hope you are too! Anyways, this is not the last chapter of the story, so I will see you in the next one!

* * *

Sachiko sat in her chair reading through the last slide that had major information on it. She sighed realizing there was yet another typo. Ever since Yumi had slammed the door she had been having trouble focusing. Even the quality of what she wrote wasn't quite up to par in her opinion, but she couldn't bring herself to care too much. It was acceptable for now.

After saving her work and putting her laptop in her bag for work tomorrow she turned the light off in the room and started making her way up to the bedroom. She glanced at her wristwatch as she climbed the stairs, it was almost one in the morning.

She knew she would pay for this. She had to be out the door in about five hours and she hadn't slept much the night before to top it off. She carefully opened the bedroom door and started undressing before realizing their fan wasn't on. She raised an eyebrow at that before finding her way to the fan and turning it on. Even if was pitch black in their room she had gotten good at navigating it.

After the fan was on she took off her wristwatch and set it on the small table next to her side of the bed and made sure her alarm was set before climbing in. Yumi instantly came to mind as her head hit the pillow and though she didn't want to wake Yumi, she did want to be close to her right now.

Sachiko rolled onto her side and frowned a little, she absolutely hated that she felt odd about touching Yumi. She was scared almost, but she knew that was because of how guilty she felt. Unfortunately, when she reached over she was met with an empty cold mattress.

She felt around a bit before climbing out of bed and making her way over to the light switch. Her heart sank when she saw that the bed was indeed empty and Yumi's pillow was missing. She quickly headed down the stairs but stopped halfway. She could see Yumi asleep on the couch faintly illuminated by the moonlight coming through the window.

If she felt bad before, she felt terrible now. She should be the one sleeping on the couch, not Yumi. Deciding against waking her sleeping wife, Sachiko headed back up to their bedroom with her head hung low. She wasn't going to sleep well tonight, and she couldn't help but feel like she deserved it.

 **Around 9 AM the next day. . .**

Sachiko sat in a chair in the hallway, it had been about twenty minutes since the meeting had ended and she was waiting for her father to be done talking with his staff. Seeing as though she had already given her presentation and had helped her father with his, she thought it would be nice to just sit down for a little while and not think about anything. That was easier said than done though, Yumi kept coming to mind anytime she even got a second to think. Even during the meeting, she couldn't help but think of her wife.

The silence of the hallway and the cushy chair she was sitting in didn't help much with her fight to stay awake either. She was absolutely exhausted from the night before. Just like she had thought, she barely got any sleep. Thankfully, she would win this fight against staying awake when the sight of a coffee being handed to her caught her attention. She looked up at her father who didn't say anything, he just simply looked a little concerned.

"Thank you," Sachiko said as she took the offered coffee from him and stood from her chair.

"Are you doing alright?" Touro asked curiously, he had noticed his daughter's mood and exhaustion since she arrived this morning.

"Yes," she answered quickly. "I'm sorry you caught me like that, it won't happen again. We should head back to your office though. I ran through our numbers last night and-"

"Last night?" Touro asked curiously before Sachiko could finish her sentence.

Sachiko nodded, "yes, and I found that-"

"When last night?"

". . .Does it matter?" Sachiko asked not certain as to what her father was getting at.

Touro just simply stopped walking and turned to his daughter and just stared at her for a moment. He could see her exhaustion and something else. Something was troubling her. "How is everything at home?"

Sachiko blinked once or twice, she had no idea where these weird questions were coming from, "fine."

Touro sighed, "you're lying."

Sachiko shook her head, "no, everything is fine I promise. Why are you even asking about this? We have another big meeting this afternoon that we need to get ready for."

Touro remained silent for a moment before giving a nod and continuing to walk towards his office. "You know, over the years I have made a lot of great business deals. I've prided myself on always being able to spot a bad deal."

Sachiko just simply nodded not certain what her father was getting at.

"Part of being able to spot a bad deal was being able to spot someone who was lying. I needed to get good at this to make sure the business succeeded. . . More importantly to know when my wife and daughter were hiding something."

Sachiko remained silent for a moment, all she could think of was Yumi slamming that door on her.

"What has me most worried is the troubled expression you've had since you got here this morning," he explained as he opened his office door and let Sachiko enter first. "Now, I know you are an adult and can make your own decisions, but I am still your father. I am not asking if everything is alright because I want to pry into your life, it's because you are my daughter and I still worry about you."

Sachiko sighed as she took a seat across from her father's desk. This felt like so many other times in her life. How she thought she could get around him was beyond her at this moment. "I said something I shouldn't have last night, it's just been on my mind I guess."

"Said something you shouldn't have? Did you and Yumi have a fight?" Touro asked curiously as he walked around his desk and took a seat.

". . .Sort of," Sachiko replied knowing there wasn't much a fight, just a hard rejection. "I just didn't have time for her last night and-"

"You've been taking on too much work," Touro simply interrupted. The way Sachiko's shoulder sank told him he was right. "How much work have you been taking home lately?"

"A lot of it," Sachiko answered.

"I hear you were here last Saturday also?"

Sachiko nodded.

"Why are you trying to take on so much work?"

Sachiko remained silent for a moment, she hadn't really thought too much about that question. "I guess I just thought that is what you did to make this place successful. If I'm going to take over one day, I thought I should show everyone that I am willing to put in the time to prove that I'm good enough."

"At the expense of your own personal life," Touro said and though it was more of a statement, Sachiko felt like it was an insult. Those words were so true for her in that moment that they hurt even though they shouldn't have and weren't meant to.

Silence hung in the air for a minute, Touro could see his daughter was absorbing those words and thinking about what exactly they meant.

"Do you remember what happened three years ago after you got out of college?" Touro asked as Sachiko glanced up to him.

She smiled a little before answering, "of course. I married Yumi."

"Yes," Touro said smiling himself, that was a rather joyous day for everyone. He had never seen his daughter so happy. "You married Yumi-chan."

"How about shortly after the wedding?"

"We moved into our house together," Sachiko replied still smiling warmly at the thought. She remembered how exciting that time was. Finally moving in to their own house as a married couple was the same day that they both felt they truly conquered all their fears and worries. Fear that the arranged marriage wouldn't be cancelled. Worry about how their parents would take the news that they were together.

"Yes, you moved in with your beautiful bride," Touro said smiling a little more himself. He could see these memories alone were cheering up his daughter.

"Why are you bringing all this up though?" Sachiko finally asked.

"Simple," Touro responded, "I want you to remember what makes you happy. I want you to realize that not once in those happy memories did you ever once mention starting to work here. You started here right after college, yet I hear no mention of it."

"Well. . ." Sachiko paused, her father was right, and she worried that she had given him the impression that she didn't want to be here.

"I know what you're thinking, Sachiko. Trust me when I tell you that I am not upset that you don't want your life to revolve around this place. I know some of the other partners in this business live and breathe this, but that is all they do. If you asked them about their personal life, I guarantee they don't have one or they most certainly do not have a happy one."

"They expect a certain level of performance from me though."

"Only because you keep personally raising that bar for them. They will push you as far as you are willing to go. You've proven in these past few weeks that you are willing to everything in your personal life aside for work. It's been just a few weeks and it is already causing tension between your wife and you. This is not what I want for you, Sachiko. More importantly, this is not what Yumi-chan wants for you either. I don't even need to speak with her to know that."

Sachiko sighed as her head hung low again. Her father had read her like a book, perhaps her wife's ability to wear her feelings on her face was rubbing off on her more than she thought. "If this isn't what you want for me, then what do you want?"

Touro looked at her confused, the answer was so simple for him. "I want you to be happy and I want you to confront the fact that isn't what you want to be doing either. I, like you, want you to live the best life you can with Yumi. Youko once told me that she believed Yumi-chan was your happiness and I agree... So, quit pushing your happiness away to be miserable here. We're only asking you to do that eight hours a day."

"What about the other partner's?"

"Who cares? You are doing a lot of their work for them. They've done it for years before you showed up. Let them continue doing it. You don't need to prove anything to them. The only person you should care about keeping happy is your wife, and from what I'm hearing, you aren't doing so well with that right now. . . So, my next question is, what are you going to do about it?"

"I want to make it up to her somehow, but I still have a bunch of work that needs to be done."

"Give it to me. I will disperse it to the right people, they will handle it for you. Speaking of which, I think it's time we hired the right people to assist you. It's clear you are trying to take on too much alone."

"Then after the meeting we can discuss who. . ." Sachiko stopped talking when she noticed her father shake his head.

"Quit thinking about work for a second. Tell me what you really want to do right now. Really think about what you want to do and why you want to do it."

Sachiko sat and thought about it for a few moments, the answer was obvious, it was on her mind all day. "I want to go home. I want to tell Yumi that I'm sorry and that I love her. . . You're right after all, she is my happiness and the most important thing in the world to me. I love her, and I feel absolutely horrible for pushing her away this past week. . ."

Sachiko blinked a few times before looking to her father feeling like she knew what she needed to do now. "I know we have this meeting, but all I ever do is sit and watch in a lot of these... I need to go home, and I don't think I'm going to be here tomorrow."

"Is that a question?"

Sachiko smiled and shook her head, "No, I'm telling you that I am going home."

Touro smiled at his daughter, "then I will see you on Monday. You will be with me. I want and need to teach you a few things about managing your work load here."

"That sounds good," Sachiko said as she stood from her chair and headed towards the door. She stopped before leaving and turned back to her father. "Thank you, dad."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Hey, so here is the final chapter for this story. I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I have. This story kind of came out of no where for me, but I was happy with it. As I had mentioned I was working on a different story, but I just couldn't get it to come out the way I wanted to. I found this one way easier to write, so perhaps I had more of an idea as to what I was looking for in this one if that makes sense. The one shot that I was doing for those that are curious kind of focused on the idea of attraction and followed Sachiko realizing she saw Yumi as more than a friend. Perhaps I will get around to that one again, but I'll decide that later. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this story, thank you for the reviews/PM's and as always I'll see you guys in whatever I post next!

* * *

"No, I didn't get any food for her. She is an adult, she can figure out where to get food if she is hungry," Yumi explained to her mother as she came to a red light.

"Yumi, I know you are feeling neglected and that is making you upset-"

"Neglected!? Mom, she wrote me off as nothing more than annoyance last night. Do you know how much that hurt?" Yumi asked as the phone line went silent for a moment. Her mother was trying to think of the right response. Yumi was thinking she probably shouldn't have called her mother, she was just getting more upset talking about all this.

". . .Yumi, all I'm trying to say is that this might not be the best way to handle this. She is your wife."

"Yea? Well she should start acting like it," Yumi quickly spat as the line when silent again. Those words that had been said to her the night before still hurt just as much now as they did then. She knew Sachiko was stressed, she kept telling herself that all night and all day today. Unfortunately, it didn't make it hurt any less.

Yumi's mother sighed, she hadn't heard her daughter this upset in a long time. "I don't disagree with that. I just worry that starting to ignore her back could put a very large strain on your marriage."

Yumi frowned, now she understood what her mother was getting at. "Mom, this isn't going to hurt our marriage. I love her. Even though what she said really hurt, I still love her. I just think a taste of her own medicine might be good for her."

Her mother was silent for a moment before speaking. "Fine, but for the record I don't like this idea."

"I don't either to be honest, but I need to get through to her," Yumi said with a sigh as she pulled into the driveway. She was surprised to see Sachiko's car already there, she usually didn't get home for around another hour. "Hey, mom, I'll call you back, I just got home." She explained without mentioning Sachiko was already home.

After saying goodbye to her mother, Yumi grabbed the plastic bag from her passenger seat that had her dinner. She was planning on putting in a movie, eating her meal, and drinking plenty of wine tonight. She had the next day off from work, so she was going to enjoy tonight as best she could.

She decided to ignore Sachiko being home early by convincing herself that she was just in the office working. As she entered the house and kicked her shoes off she didn't even bother to glance down the hall towards the office door. She just simply went into the living room where her blanket and pillow were still sitting on the couch and set her food down on the table.

She stared at her blanket for a moment thinking about how terrible it was to sleep on the couch last night. Perhaps tonight, she would sleep in her bedroom and make Sachiko sleep on the couch. It had crossed her mind this morning that she shouldn't be the one sleeping on the couch. She just couldn't bring herself the night before to force Sachiko on to the couch, she was already dead tired. She needed sleep and she knew sleeping on the couch wouldn't provide much.

Yumi frowned at that thought, even while upset with her wife, she was still thinking of what was best for her. She shook that thought out of her head before heading into the kitchen and throwing her car keys in a bowl they had sitting on the counter and making her way up to their bedroom.

As she climbed the stairs she could hear the shower running and when she got to her bedroom door she heard it shut off. She sighed as she pushed open the bedroom door, she didn't want to fight with Sachiko. She knew ignoring her wouldn't be easy if she was right there. In a way she hoped Sachiko stayed in the office today to make it easier to ignore her. Her mother's words played in her head again and she realized even if she was ignoring her that she shouldn't avoid her. They weren't in that bad of a spot.

She raised an eyebrow when she entered their bedroom. It appeared Sachiko had cleaned it, not that it was super messy in the first place. Yumi took a deep breath, something was strange, she wasn't sure what was going on right now, but she decided to ignore the cleaned room and started changing.

As she did, the bathroom door opened behind her and it took every ounce of will power she had for her to ignore it. She just simply kept changing her clothes before tossing her dirty launder in the hamper and leaving the room.

"Wait," Sachiko said as Yumi ignored her and shut the bedroom door behind her. Sachiko sighed, she knew her words from the night before were insensitive. She knew they hurt Yumi, but she had never been flat out ignored by her wife. In a way it was almost frightening for her to face Yumi now. Yumi's silence towards her, the fact that she hadn't even bothered to look her way spoke volumes about how much she was hurting.

Sachiko frowned, in a way she felt like she should just let Yumi do this. She felt like she deserved to be ignored the same way she ignored Yumi. She shook her head of those thoughts as quickly as she had them. She knew that could just lead to more strain between them and right now, she wanted nothing more than to get rid of any strain between them.

With that in mind, she put some clothes on and started making her way down the stairs. She could hear the television on, it was louder than normal. She was confused when she didn't see Yumi in the living room. She turned the television volume down just as Yumi came around the corner from the kitchen with a freshly opened bottle of wine.

Sachiko froze, she didn't know what to do or say. She was afraid that Yumi wouldn't accept her apology. She was terrified that she would mess it up.

"Don't you have work to do?" Yumi asked coldly. Unfortunately, she realized there was no way she would be able to ignore Sachiko.

"Yes," Sachiko said as Yumi sighed and made her way over to the couch with her wine bottle. Of course, Sachiko had work to do, why did she think her wife being home early meant she didn't. "I was tasked with a very important assignment today."

Yumi didn't even bother looking up at her, she just simply started taking her takeout box out of the plastic bag it was in, "better not waste too much time then. Especially on an annoyance like me."

Sachiko winced at her wife's words, she felt like her guilt could swallow her whole right now. "I'm sorry."

Yumi stopped what she was doing and looked up at Sachiko. The guilt was evident on her face.

"I'm so sorry about what I said last night. It was a horrible thing to say and I feel absolutely terrible about saying it, doubly because I said it to you. I don't ever want you to think you are an annoyance or pestering me _ever._ You are my wife, the love of my life, and I need you to know that I love you more than anything in the world."

Yumi took a deep breath, and Sachiko took that as her queue to come around the table and sit down on the couch next to Yumi.

"Yumi, I am so sorry. Please let me make it up to you," Sachiko said as she carefully took Yumi's hand into her own.

Yumi felt her walls crumble as she looked at their joined hands. She just couldn't stay mad at Sachiko, and though she wanted to accept her apology and move on there was still one thing on her mind. ". . .I love you too, but don't you have more work to do? You said you had a very special assignment."

"I do," Sachiko smiled as she squeezed Yumi's hand. "This task is the most important task I will ever have."

Yumi frowned a little at that, she didn't know if she could survive another stretch without seeing Sachiko as much as she used to.

"I need to spend time with my wife because she is the best thing that has ever happened to me."

Yumi looked up at her truly surprised at Sachiko's word. She had prepared herself for more bad news.

Sachiko smiled at that, "I don't know what got into me. One of the partners asked if I could do something, and then I thought I needed to prove myself to them, like this was maybe a test to see if I was good enough."

"So, what changed?" Yumi asked curiously.

Sachiko took a deep breath as her father came to mind, "I realized the mistake I had made. I put my work as my first priority. I put it as my first priority even though I know my first priority should always be you. You're the most important thing in my life, Yumi. I don't ever want to make this mistake again and I'm sorry," she explained as she put her head down in apology.

Yumi absorbed her words for a minute or so before finally lifting Sachiko's chin with her finger and bringing her in for a soft kiss that lasted much longer than she originally intended.

"Apology, accepted." She finally said as Sachiko wrapped her arms tightly around her. The kiss and this hug felt so incredibly good. Yumi just simply rested her head on Sachiko's shoulder not wanting it to end. "Promise you won't do that again. It isn't good for your health... and I missed you."

Sachiko smiled, "My father and I have already decided that I am getting my own team so I don't get overloaded anymore. On top of that he took all the assigned work I had and sent it to his team."

Yumi pulled back from a hug a little, she wasn't sure why it had taken her this long to connect the dots. She was just enjoying this moment to its fullest. "So tonight?"

"I'm all yours."

Yumi immediately hugged her again, tighter this time as a thought crossed her mind. "Out of curiosity, do you think I'm needy?"

"Needy?" Sachiko asked as she pulled away from the hug and looked at Yumi for a moment. "No, why?"

Yumi shrugged, "It's been just under two weeks and I just feel like I was going crazy not being able to talk to you really at all. I just worried last night that I seemed overly needy."

Sachiko raised an eyebrow, "you're my wife. I know I wouldn't make it very long without your attention."

Yumi thought about the past two weeks and how Sachiko had barely even acknowledged her existence. "I guess I just need more attention than you do."

Sachiko raised an eyebrow before realizing what she was getting on about. "That isn't true, Yumi. Every night I climbed in bed I would make it a point to snuggle as close to you as I could. I barely slept a wink last night knowing you were down here... Speaking of which, why did you sleep on the couch? I deserved to be sleeping on the couch, yet I found you sleeping on the couch."

Yumi looked away from her, "you looked dead tired last night and said you had to get up really early. I wanted to make sure you could get some sleep and I figured the couch would make that hard."

"Not as hard as sleeping alone. . . That is beside the point though, I just want to move on from this."

"Me too. Let's start by ordering you something to eat. Then if you don't mind, I want to cuddle on the couch until you have to go to bed."

Sachiko smiled, "I don't have to go to bed early tonight actually. I took tomorrow off just in case this went well. I was hoping you would want to spend the day with me, because I would really like to spend tonight, tomorrow, and the whole weekend doing whatever you're doing."

"That is all I've wanted since last Monday," Yumi happily replied before dialing the number on her phone and ordering some food to be delivered for Sachiko. Once she was done she set her phone on the table and plopped down on the couch next to Sachiko who welcomed Yumi's presence.

The two just sat there silently celebrating the fact that this was over. For once in the past two or so weeks, things felt back to the way they were, back to the way they should have always been. No conflict, no stress, just a happily married couple being genuinely happy.

This blissful silence was only interrupted when Yumi finally spoke. "Later tonight is going to be so much better with you having tomorrow off."


End file.
